Japan Day 3 – Tokyo

We started our last day in Tokyo with another convenience store breakfast, I went with my usual canned coffee and sandwich from 7-11. The plan for today was to visit the Tokyo National Museum, Edo-Tokyo Museum and the giant Gundam in Odaiba.

After taking the subway to Ueno, we walked through Ueno park towards the museum. The enormous line of visitors that snaked for at least a kilometre was quite a sight to behold. There was a special exhibition of Japanese treasures being held, luckily for T & I, the normal exhibitions were still open.

Chow Tips: Tokyo National Museum, Ueno Zoo, National Museum of Nature and Science and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum are all located in Ueno park. So if you want to visit more than one of these places, plan them on the same day to save time!

Tokyo National Museum

The Tokyo National Museum carries a vast collection of artefacts from around Asia, predominately from Japan. Unfortunately, most of the information about the artefacts displayed are in Japanese. However, you can purchase an audio guide in English.

Chow Tips: If you’re feeling tired from all the walking, head to the scenic garden at the back of the museum for a break!

After we finished admiring the artefacts on display at the museum, we headed make to food stalls that we had seen earlier. After a quick browse of all the different foods on display, I opted for the Omu Soba, a giant omelette filled with Yaki Soba noodles!

I spotted a stall serving Indian cuisine and bought a mango lassi, which was surprisingly good!

We slowly made our way back through park, which was dotted with street performers such as magicians and dancers.

Our next stop was the Edo Tokyo Museum, which focuses on the history of the city starting from the Edo period. The building itself is quite an interesting sight, its shaped like a gigantic spaceship.

Edo-Tokyo Museum

Inside you’ll find elaborate displays and recreations of all facets of Japanese life in the capital city.

After going through the exhibitions T & I headed off for a more relaxing place, Odaiba! Odaiba is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay with several shopping complexes such as Diver City, Decks Tokyo and Palette Town. We headed to Diver City to see the giant Gundam that has become quite a tourist attraction.

Odaiba

Chow Tips: If you are using public transport to get to Odaiba, be aware which station is closest to the attraction you want to go to or else you’ll have to walk quite far as the island is very large!

Behold the giant life size Gundam! After taking a few photos, we headed into the shopping centres to browse around.

After visiting 3 different shopping complexes we headed back to the Gundam statue and waited for the light show that happens at night. Frankly the show was disappointing, the Gundam moves its head, fog shoots out of the vents and lights flash.

Tokyo Tower

Our final attraction of Tokyo would be the prominent Tokyo Tower! Getting to the tower was a bit of an adventure as T & I got lost and had to ask for directions.

Genki Sushi

Dinner for our final night in Tokyo was not ramen but sushi! We would be dining at Genki Sushi, a cheap sushi train restaurant with branches across Japan. We didn’t expect to wait for 30 minutes for a sushi train. You can check out my full review of Genki Sushi here!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for a long day of travelling that awaited us the next day.